ah...it's saturday. the sun is shining, my laundry is started, everything is picked up besides the living room, and my husband is sleeping after his night shift clinical. bliss. i love saturdays.

i probably never fully appreciated saturdays until after i got married. i didn't have a house to take care of, i only had my own laundry to do, and honestly, i didn't even care how messy my bedroom was. trust me, my parents were very thankful that my bedroom was at the back of the house :)

i did, however, appreciate saturdays bcause i didn't have to go to work, and that still is true. i love, adore, cherish, appreciate my days off work. especially after a week like i just had...

this week; oh this week. i was humbled, but not before being frustrated beyond belief. you see, working in the social work field it can be easy to become numb to some incredibly difficult situations. and i have done that in a lot of ways, but what i haven't done is forgotten that the clients i work with are still people. living, breathing human beings who are someone's daughter, son, mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, or cousin.

does that mean i think my clients have made the best choices in their lives? not usually. does that mean i think my clients are all stable enough for their children to be given back to them? not always.

but what it does mean is that my clients still have saddness, pain, joy, happiness--and that also means they have rights. and when those rights are forgotten about by other people, i get heated. when my clients are not treated fairly, i become protective.

i think what can often be forgotten is that i am capable of making all of the decisions my clients have made. now obviously, i haven't, but i could. just because i was raised by amazing parents does not make me any better than people whose parents didn't pay much attention to them. just because i have a college education does not mean i'm smarter than someone who dropped out of high school. just because i am married to a wonderful man does not mean i don't understand others' desire to be loved and cared for. just because i have a support system does not mean i forget about those who are lonely. and just because i am a social worker does not make me better than those i work with.

i don't want to pretend like i have it all figured out. because i don't. but i do want justice for those who are often looked in society, and i believe that i am to fight for that. for now and always.

Mark 2:16-17, "But the teachers of the religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked the disciples, 'Why does he eat with such scum?' When Jesus heard this, he told them, 'Healthy people do not need a doctor--sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.'"